Author
Topic: Survivor Samoa in the Media (Read 6981 times)

Survivor's Past and FutureJeff Probst talks to IGN about this fall's Samoa edition, next year's 10th anniversary season and more.by Eric Goldman August 26, 2009 - The 19th installment of reality heavyweight Survivor is coming, with the September 16th debut of Survivor: Samoa. I recently had the chance to chat with the Emmy-winning host of that series, Jeff Probst, about this coming season, along with a look back at some other recent Survivor editions.

Next spring will see the show celebrate its 10th anniversary and its 20th season, and thanks to the magic of public court records, we know an attempt was made to bring original winner Richard Hatch back for what is widely assumed to be some sort of All-Stars season. While everyone involved in Survivor is being tightlipped on the exact plans for Season 20, I also try to get Probst to give me some hints as to what fans might expect.

IGN TV: What can you say about Survivor: Samoa?

Jeff Probst: A very aggressive season from the participants and from Samoa. We lost a couple of people to evacuations and we emerged with, I think, one of the most notorious villains. When you think about how many years we've been on, to break into that ranking… you gotta play. And this person said from day one, "I'm coming here to tear it up and either go home early or I'm gonna be here late, but nowhere in between." And they lived up to their word!

Probst: And then I used to say I didn't like [Survivor] Africa - the first Africa season, in Kenya. And then I meet people who are like, "Are you kidding?! That's one of my favorite seasons! Big Tom and Ethan!" It's personal… But I still don't like Fiji!

IGN: So, how would you rank Samoa?

Probst: Well, here's the thing. After [Survivor:] Gabon and [Survivor] Tocantins, I thought Tocantins would be one of our most favorite and Gabon would be an also-ran. It turned out the audience really liked Gabon and I think they thought Tocantins was okay. So I might be done predicting! Because I'm not right very often! I can say about Samoa that there are some extremely memorable moments. I can think of four right off the top of my head where when it's over, you'll go, "Yep, yep, yep, yep!" And one of our most compelling characters, out of 300 some people that have played. So that's what I would say.

PASADENA, Calif. - The South Pacific has a lure all its own. Its islands are dotted with serene white sand beaches, verdant green valleys and extravagant, majestic waterfalls. It's a place where, as the song Bali Ha'i from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific had it, "Your own special hopes/Your own special dreams/Bloom on the hillside/And shine in the streams. . . . Where the sky meets the sea."

James Michener famously eulogized the turquoise seas and paradise islands in his 1947 classic Tales of the South Pacific and its followup, Rascals in Paradise.

But Survivor: Samoa showed a darker, more malevolent side to paradise, explains Survivor host Jeff Probst of the 19th season of reality TV's most durable, enduring survival competition.

There were rascals in Survivor's paradise, Probst reports - and paradise itself was not always what it was made out to be, either.

Survivor: Samoa bows Thursday, Sept. 17 with a new cast of the usual reality-TV suspects looking to outwit, outplay and outlast their way to a $1-million US prize and 15 minutes of reality-TV fame. The youngest contestant is 22. The oldest is 62. There's a doctor, a police officer, an urban planner and a rocket scientist.

Through it all, though, the wind howled, the skies opened up and the castaways were drenched.

"Samoa is very beautiful - and it kicked the ass of two people to the point where they had to be evacuated," Probst told Canwest News Service in a long, wide-ranging conversation. "It was hot, and then it rained. And it rained for about a week. They didn't have fire. And they couldn't get water. It was hard. It was definitely hard."

But the show must go on.

"I think one of the things that has happened over the last 10 years is that there are so many reality shows that are basically scripted - you can feel it when you're watching - that people may forget that Survivor is not fake.

"I'm not going to give you a bottle of water. I'm saying: 'I'm sorry you're thirsty but you've still got to run this damn challenge.' People push their bodies, and their bodies give out on them. If you can win this game, you've damn well earned it. It is a hard 39 days. I don't think I could do it."

Probst says he feels he would be better at the mental aspect of the game than the physical, but he doubts he would ever win.

"My strength would be that I'm a good strategic thinker. I can think a lot of moves ahead, and keep it all in my head. And I can get along with people.

"My weakness would be that I'm a leader. I can't follow someone who I don't believe is leading us well. So I would be the guy who, in episode three, would say, 'I'm taking over; we've got to go in a different direction.' And I'd probably be gone. People would think I'm cocky or arrogant or whatever, and that would be my demise. But I can't not lead."

As for that long-rumoured "cold weather" edition - Survivor in Canada? - Probst says it is unlikely to happen.

"We've talked about it. But the problem is this: what do you do when you're cold? You hibernate. You cuddle up. You're not outside, climbing coconut trees, running through the water. That's Survivor. Bathing suits and seeing people with bug bites. The sun. I think the cold could work, but it's a big unknown."

The last two Survivors were won by self-styled "nice guys" and magnanimous leader types: 24-year-old Alabama cattle rancher James "J.T." Thomas Jr. (Survivor Tocantins: The Brazilian Highlands) and 57-year-old high-school physics teacher Robert "Bob" Crowley (Survivor Gabon: Earth's Last Eden).

Probst cautioned against reading too much into that, though.

"I don't think there are any trends. I think you can have coincidences, where a nice guy wins a couple of times in a row.

"This season, we have one of our most dastardly guys ever. One of the greatest villains in our history. And this is our 19th season. He's had to beat a lot of people. And somebody like that could still theoretically win the game, if they pulled a Richard Hatch."

Hatch, a corporate motivational speaker from Rhode Island, famously won the original Survivor in the summer of 2000 by convincing the others that he used guile, deceit and outright deception to outwit, outplay and outlast more pleasant personalities, and therefore deserved to win.

"Nobody does that anymore," Probst said. "Nobody gets up and says, 'I kicked your ass; now give me the money.'"

That may change with Survivor: Samoa, Probst hinted.

Probst says 10 years of hosting Survivor - 19 seasons in all, with a 20th on the way - have given him ample opportunity for self-examination.

"I'm not the same person I was," he said quietly. "We could talk for hours. The biggest change is when I realized I am not the centre of the universe. None of us are. When you sit under the sky in Kenya and you look at the stars, you realize - hopefully - that, wow, that little world I live in back in L.A. is just that. It's a little, tiny microcosm, and this is a gigantic globe. That's what Survivor has shown me the most - that the world is massive, and I'm just one little squirrel trying to get my nut. "

And I only thought I had a problem with Coach...my never hate a contestant rule just got smoked!!

Logged

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens." --Phil Keoghan

The 19th season of Survivor is set in the rugged beauty of Samoa. Find out how these 20 Americans' journey starts on this adventure of a lifetime! The season starts Thursday, September 17th at 8pm on CBS!

Stephen Fishbach Picks Survivor: Samoa FavoritesSeptember 16, 2009Attention Survivor fans! Stephen Fishbach will be blogging about strategy and game play on Survivor: Samoa each week at PEOPLE.com. A New York brand consultant and runner-up to JT Thomas on Survivor: Tocantins, Fishbach gained fans and fame last season for his artful maintenance of Jalapao’s hidden immunity idol and, along with JT, picking off Timbira one-by-one to get to the final two. Check back each week to hear from Stephen — and to talk all about the new season of Survivor, which begins Thursday, Sept. 17.

“A clever fighter wins his battles by making no mistakes.” –Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Survivor is a game of mistakes. As soon as you hit that beach, your tribemates are looking for something that sets you apart, a reason to vote you out. You’re too old or too ugly. You make the wrong alliance. You slip up in an immunity challenge and cost your tribe victory. You invite your friends on a reward and leave your enemies back at camp to plot against you. Maybe you win too much, or too often. Or maybe you wait too long to betray your biggest ally and lose the game to him in a jury shut-out.

If that last one sounds vaguely familiar, that’s what happened to me last season in Survivor: Tocantins. I played what I think was a strategic game: I controlled a hidden immunity idol, tried to eliminate randomness where I could from an extremely unpredictable game, and played two opposing alliances off against each other.

But ultimately, after I had betrayed just about everybody in the game, I missed my chance to twist the knife in my best friend/god-child/light-bringer JT’s back. The jury swooned for his Southern charm and awarded him the million bucks!

Since Survivor, I’ve been nursing my wounds and getting back to work as a freelance writer and brand consultant. Now I’m excited for Survivor: Samoa to start, so I can do for these poor saps what past bloggers did for me — armchair quarterbacking from the comfort of my well-stocked and air-conditioned apartment.

Every week, I’ll be picking what I think is the key strategic move of the episode — whether it’s a brilliantly-constructed blindside, a smart alliance, or even just a friendship that could pay off big strategic dividends down the line. But I also want your opinion. Who’s playing a smart game? Who’s overrated? Who’s living in a fantasy world of knights and dragon-slayers?

For now, check out the cast’s bios and pre-game videos.

My personal pre-season favorite is Jaison — he plays the strategy game Diplomacy like I do, and I found that to be an incredible primer for The Game. Diplomacy is like Survivor without the starvation: there’s scheming, alliance-building based on trust and mutual self-interest, and of course backstabbing. I also like Jaison’s plan to back-channel information and create hidden alliances.

I’m also a fan Monica and of Erik. And I’m looking forward to seeing Russell H in action. Jeff Probst called him “the closest thing to evil we’ve ever had on Survivor.” Let’s see what villainy he has in store!

For the most part, everyone says they will fly under the radar and align quickly with a small group of friends. Fortunately, Survivor casts people who can’t control their mouths or their tempers. A couple of them already admit they “tell it like it is.” Good. That makes for better TV, if worse strategy.

And no matter how smart your pre-game strategy, everything changes as soon as you hit the beach. It’s 120 degrees, you’re eating termites, and that Survivor paranoia starts to set in…. Game on! — Stephen Fishbach

"I can't speak for production, but I really like that people see us when we're traveling around the world. If you're a fan of the show, ... you're going to be more excited because you want to see what happens." --Phil Keoghan

In the nine years and 19 — yes, 19 — seasons Survivor has been on air, "challenges" have become a hallmark of the Emmy Award-winning CBS show. Survivor: Samoa debuts on Thursday with dramatic backdrops of thundering waterfalls, lush rain forests, and wide, sandy beaches. Survivor challenges can be giant obstacle courses, violent brawls, complex puzzles or blindfolded mazes. Though the contests may look relatively simple, they are the product of months of careful planning.

At the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards Sunday night, Jeff Probst won his second Emmy in a row for outstanding reality host. PEOPLE caught up with Probst about his winning weekend and the growing buzz about Survivor: Samoa’s Russell. –Cynthia Wang

How was your Emmy night?We got back last week. It’s a bit of culture shock to go from the islands of Samoa, where people literally are walking around with machetes, to Hollywood, where people are walking around with Emmys, but it is good to be home.

How was it to win your second Emmy?It happened so fast! I had seen Alec Baldwin just go up there and be so present. He made a joke about Rob Lowe and I thought, “Man, that guy, he’s not nervous” … So that was what was going through my head when as I was walking up: “Don’t be nervous, just enjoy this.” But I must say, when I looked down at the audience, people always say — “Well, I saw Tina Fey, and I …” — I didn’t see anybody. It’s all a bunch of dots thinking, “Please get off that stage. Hurry up!”

Any celebrity encounters?At the Evening Before party, Michael J. Fox came up and said, “I gotta tell ya, I’m a big Survivor fan,” and I talked for 20 minutes with an icon! I couldn’t believe it. And I saw him again at the Emmys and we had a really nice conversation and it’s been the highlight. I think that and meeting my TV crush, Mary-Louise Parker, at the PEOPLE party. Those two bookend a pretty good night!

Now you are back and seeing people react to Russell Hantz on Survivor: Samoa.I don’t think there’s any doubt he’s going to go down as one of the most notorious villains we’ve had on Survivor, if not the most. I am curious what people’s take on him will be. He came in from the first day going, “I am going to tear this game up.” He was consistent.

Are there other surprises coming up with this season?It’s a physical season. We have two medical evacuations. Some people push themselves harder than their bodies can take, and our doctors are telling us that infections are spreading more now and these things are really happening. I remember James [Clement] got pulled for having an infection in his finger to which I said, “We are going to lose one of our stars?” And the doctor said, “He’s going to lose his hand.” They say they are not changing their protocol but the world is changing. In Samoa we had 115 degrees every day and a period where for a week it rained nonstop and they had no water. We had one of the scariest moments ever for me on one evacuation. I was really scared.

Survivor: Samoa - Russell: Unmatched EvilRussell is running the show, so don't you dare cross him! He's ruthless & doesn't care who he hurts on the way to the final three. Don't miss a minute of Survivor: Samoa, Thursdays on CBS!

How does the Survivor crew shoot all that breathtaking aerial footage? Jeff Probst and his dimples take us behind the scenes (and up in the air!) for a look at how the show gets all those gorgeous panoramic views of the cast, wildlife and scenery that give National Geographic Survivor envy. Learn secrets about how the show is filmed and fly along with Probst as he even tries his own hand at filming from a moving helicopter. Spoiler: It’s not as easy as it looks. With views like this, the tribe is not speaking – it’s too busy picking its jaws up off the ground.